Are You Open Minded? Are You SURE?

8 comments:

Good way to start my day. Thanks, John. Your essay brings to mind my reaction to Tom's teachings about soldiers/warriors and war; during one of the workshops of our two year session. I have always been a vehement anti-war, nonviolence believer and practitioner. But that particular study and discussion, opened up my mind and caused me to do a lot of soul searching. A very unsettling, mind stretching experience. <3

Very interesting! I'm all for dissolving dualism but I wonder if we also must learn to live with paradox. What if both views are correct and mutually exclusive? How do we remove the filter of our culture, upbringing, etc.? Can we, really? It makes sense to me that we would respond more positively to what fits what we already know since those brain pathways are already in existence in our brains and the incoming information has a place to go. And, for me, I think I much rather listen to someone who presents a reasonable argument filled with history and science to one that is based soley on an emotional response. But I'll have to see if that is really true about me...

John,This is a great thing to ponder. I once had a fortune cookie in which my fortune read, "If you picture it in your mind, you will find it in your life." Put another way, be careful what you wish for...you just might get it. My younger sister once told me a story of a student she was teaching English to in the UAE. She flunked her student not becuase the student had presented a report to the class derogatory towards the United States. She said that it was a great content, sound arguments, etc. She flunked the student because the student forgot her audience...meaning my sister. I wondered, as only a sibling can, did my sister forget her audience? Paradox, I think, is life. Summer, winter, life, death...

Life IS a paradox - dualism and unity are mutually exclusive, and yet they are both true. I think that the way they are each (truly) experienced is, perhaps not surprisingly, from a mutually exclusive perspective. The truth doesn't change. Our vantage point, on the other hand, can be infinitely varying, if we're willing.

I have been going through a very powerful process of self-change lately. In it, I have often asked myself, "What beliefs am I willing to give up, in order to become whole? In order to find truth?"

There were a LOT of them, once I started looking -- beliefs that made me feel good about myself, or righteous, or whatever. And many were at least partly true.

But I suspected that many obscured my vision and the path to understanding. So I'd give them up, at least for a while, and contemplate the world that I saw without them coloring my vision.

A pleasure to find you doing well and a pleasure to find your blog! Interesting stuff indeed.

As to this particular issue, we are basically talking of overcoming confirmation bias in our daily lives. We always resist information that contradicts our general ideas of how the world does work as well as how it should work. This is not at all a bad thing. In fact it is quite a good thing. It is the AMOUNT of resistance that is important.

To address jacstankavage's question of "How do we remove the filter of our culture, upbringing, etc.? Can we, really?" I submit that we simply shouldn't. It is these influences that make up our unique perspective and provide us with opinions that have value. It is how we utilize these filters that is important. For example, if a person tends to be politically conservative, these filters will catch information about, say, global warming and isolate it. This is a good thing. We SHOULD have filters to judge what we simply accept as fact and what we do not. The problem is that the common thing to do with what has been filtered out it to simply throw it away. What one needs to do to be whole is to examine what is in your filter from time to time and make sure that what you are throwing out is, in fact, worthless.

Personally, I have a very useful filter that removes anything that Glenn Beck says from consideration. It serves me well and allows me to move more efficiently through life. I do, however, check from time to time to see if our mentally deranged friend has hit on something. So far, there have been no real results as anything he says that has merit has been said better by someone else. However, his passion for his position creates a slim potential for accidental wisdom, so I check.

One should be skeptical of information that challenges our worldview. We EARNED our worldviews through our experiences. However, a skeptic is not a person who rejects out of hand. A skeptic is one who requires proof AND will accept said proof if the preponderance of the evidence is tipped by it. THIS, to me, is what is meant by having an open mind...the willingness to accept evidence that challenges your position.

As a final note, if you ever are arguing with someone and getting nowhere, ask this question to your opponent: What evidence would you accept that your position is flawed? If the answer is "none" you are wasting your time debating with a person who is not debating you, but is instead attempting to perform on you what amounts to a religious conversion.

Asking the same question of your OWN beliefs is how one overcomes confirmation bias in daily life.

Hi Jeremy,Very cool comment. Thanks. I actually like very much your closing commentary. "What evidence would you accept...?" It's a pretty revealing question. Now, if only we were honest with ourselves...

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About Me

John is the founder of Firefly Willows, a Traditional Healing Arts Center in Silicon Valley, where he and the team provide therapies, classes, and workshops. Firefly Willows is home to John's shamanic healing and counseling practice.

John also provides consulting to clients around the world. After a 25 year career in high tech, John now applies his knowledge of human capacities and organizational dynamics to help others improve their lives. He is also a member of Shamanic Life , an emerging community dedicated to using ancient wisdom to address modern challenges.
John shares his insights at the Firefly Willows blog and at The Swallowtail Project.